Friday, October 15, 2010

Another Angle

I was thinking about the art pieces that the professor mentioned in class- “Piss Christ” and the image by Irene Abdou of the boy with cow dung on his face (I’m not sure if this specific one is the one she was talking about but it’s the only one I found that was similar to it).
As she mentioned, these images indeed are beautiful. Serrano’s crucifix with the bubbles around the crucifix makes it seem like it’s floating and just divine. Abdou’s portrait in which the piercing eyes stand out is also beautiful.

What I kept thinking about was the comment about God having made everything- including urine and feces- yet when they appear in forms of art people are outraged. The extremity can go as far as death threats as in Serrano’s case. I have to admit that when I heard about the image I was a bit thrown off, and right away I judged the image and deemed them improper, this was also the case with Abdou’s portrait. The reason for that was that urine and dung are waste products that an organism’s produce and for being waste products they have a negative connotation. I also have to admit that if I didn’t know about the urine and dung being part of these pieces, I would have never thought they were anything less than great. I didn’t like feeling so closed minded, so I started looking at these things from other angles, and I found some links that have really interesting information.

When going on space missions, the amount of water that is taken on board is limited, so NASA has solution- turn urine into potable water:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/30oct_eclss/

In some parts part of the world, cow dung has many uses:
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Disturbing%20Truths/drinking_cow_urine.htm

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